1. Colum Eastwood was born on 30 April 1983 and is an Irish nationalist politician who served as Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party from 2015 to 2024.
17 Facts About Colum Eastwood
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Colum Eastwood has served as the Member of Parliament for Foyle since 2019, served in Northern Ireland Assembly from 2011 to 2019 and served on Derry City Council from 2005 to 2011.
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Colum Eastwood was the SDLP candidate at the 2019 European Parliament election to represent Northern Ireland.
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Colum Eastwood later attended the University of Liverpool, where he studied Latin American Studies though he did not finish his degree.
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Colum Eastwood joined the SDLP in 1998 at age 14 to campaign for the Good Friday Agreement.
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Colum Eastwood was elected to Derry City Council in 2005 aged 22, and elected for a one-year term as Mayor of Derry in June 2010.
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Colum Eastwood sat on the Northern Ireland Assembly committees on Standards and Privileges, and the Environment and was appointed to the post of Assembly Private Secretary to the Minister of the Environment Alex Attwood in 2010.
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On 14 November 2015, Colum Eastwood contested the leadership election held at the SDLP's annual conference.
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Colum Eastwood beat the incumbent, Alasdair McDonnell, by 172 votes to 133.
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Colum Eastwood was re-elected to the NI Assembly in 2016 and 2017, receiving 5,000 and 7,240 first preference votes, respectively.
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On 12 December 2019 Colum Eastwood was elected as Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Foyle in a landslide victory against Sinn Fein candidate, then incumbent, Elisha McCallion.
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Colum Eastwood was the first of the new MPs elected at the 2019 general election to make his maiden speech in the Commons.
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On 11 November 2020 during a Westminster Hall debate Colum Eastwood called for a full and independent judicial inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989.
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Colum Eastwood was re-elected MP in 2024 following the general election.
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At the SDLP's Annual Conference on 14 November 2015, Colum Eastwood contested the leadership election where he defeated the incumbent, Alasdair McDonnell, by 172 votes to 133.
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In July 2021 Colum Eastwood used parliamentary privilege to reveal the identity of Bloody Sunday's 'Soldier F' in the House of Commons.
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Colum Eastwood married Rachael Parkes in December 2013 and the couple divorced in Summer 2022.